windy city

so according to a native of chicago, that whole "windy city" business actually has nothing to do with the weather. it refers to their politicians being full of hot air.

edit:
apparently this is a myth
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorw.htm
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-win1.htm

a shooting?

apparently last night as my friend and i were walking back from dinner (around 10pm) we walked right past a crime scene. there was a huge crowd, police cars, ambulances, the works. as we walked past i heard someone say, "he's dead!" and then another person say in his phone, so-and-so "was shot."

uh. yikes?

heat wave

today, according to weather.com, it's only about 80 degrees in chicago. tomorrow it's supposed to be 92 and yesterday it hit at least 95. ick. needless to say, i've spent the past two days sweating profusely. the heat is one thing, but the humidity is really brutal.

i love going to a city and discovering the truth behind weird tidbits and rumors, like, "Chicago is the windy city." i was, illogically, surprised to find out that, boy, are they not kidding with that one! it's very disconcerting to battle both hellacious heat and high-speed winds at the same time. why doesn't the wind help the heat problem?! agh.

anyway, other than the sticky gross heat, i'm having a marvelous time. this city is very traveler-friendly. i've taken the L a few times and walked most of the rest of the time, and i can pretty much get anywhere i'm going with very little hassle. the conference has provided shuttle buses to get us from the various hotels where the programs are being held to the conference center, and i have only two complaints about that. one, there is sometimes a really long wait between shuttles, but that's not really the fault of the shuttles themselves. the traffic here is nuts, plus "taste of chicago" is happening right now so that adds another million or so adventurers to the 20,000 librarians at this conference. the second problem is these shuttle buses have no air conditioning and the windows don't open! PLEASE STOP THE MADNESS. i'm sick of stinking.

right now i'm using the wireless at the conference center, which is $9.95/day. i heard a rumor, possibly from free range librarian, that ala might have a deal on the wireless price, but i asked yesterday and none of the ala info people (nor the people running the wired computer area) knew anything about it. alas.

i find myself to be jonesing for the ease of mapquest directions as i try to navigate this city. for some sad reason i walk out of the hostel and am consistenly at a loss. where am i? where am i going? i just don't know. it's sort of depressing. at first i thought maybe i was confused because the water was on a different side of the city than it is in philly... but the lake is to the east of chicago, just like the delaware is to the east of philadelphia. guess i can't blame my directionlessness on that...

just now i heard the peculiar sound of a small child wailing from very far below... this convention center is the size of a small neighborhood, and each level is staggered on top of the others. there's a lot of open space, so there's a very weird echo effect going on. creepy.

that's all for now. i have to figure out where i'm going next!

i'm sitting in chicago public library...

using the tasty free wifi!

the hostel where i'm staying is only half a block from here, so i think i'm going to be spending a good deal of time here. there's wifi at the conference, but apparently it's going to cost $25 for access for the week. i'm definitely taking advantage of the free stuff when i can!

so far my trip has been pleasant. the flight was without incident, and i managed to get to the hostel without too much trouble.i considered using the shuttle service from o'hare, but it costs $24 one way and the guy manning the ticket booth had no idea what i was talking about when i told him i was going to the international youth hostel. soo... i took the train instead. major plus there, cuz it's cheap and pretty direct. not door-to-door but i like to walk anyway.

i've been playing "spot the librarian" all day to keep myself amused. on my walk from the train to the hostel i discovered that one of my fellow passengers was going to the hostel as well, and he's also here for ala. it appears to be a small town, this week.

so now i'm sitting in this lovely library wasting time. i was trying to find directions to the various hotels involved in this conference, but it's making my brain hurt. i think i'll just make like a lemming and follow the herd.

anyway, since i'm not so good at scheduling my own time, i'm sure tomorrow will be even more interesting, what with the conference starting and all...

more updates later!

omg i bought a mac

last night i went to the local apple store and bought an ibook. i decided at the last minute that yes, i do need to take a laptop to ala, and yes, i will make the leap and buy a mac.

my first impression is that it's very pretty and the graphics are fantastic. it's pretty fast, but i think i'm going to give it a memory upgrade. i'm going to need to brush up on my unix skills, because i want to know what's behind that seamless interface.

and damn do i love educator discounts.

finished!

sanity

House Blocks a Provision for Patriot Act Inquiries
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/politics/16patriot.html?ei=5094&en=b1893d773f4955be&hp=&ex=1118980800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

RIP Bill of Rights

Amendment IV
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/funddocs/billeng.htm

Patriot Act Expansion Moves Through Congress
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines03/1121-01.htm

more discussion on the topic: http://mithras.blogs.com/blog/2005/06/we_fought_a_rev.html

ok, family, time for a field trip

to the new herring museum in sweden: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050603/lf_afp/afplifestyleswedenfish_050603152525&printer=1

straightforward

straightforward (http://www.straightforwardbook.com/) is a book that "makes the argument that mobilizing heterosexual support is crucial to making progress on securing equal rights for gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens. The book is packed with advice about what people can do - on personal and public levels."

you can buy it from amazon.com and b&n.com.

consider your privileges this pride month.